ASUS Z87 Maximus VI Formula Review

3D Mark 11

Another benchmark and another victory for the Formula. With a P-score of 10867 from the overclocked i7-4770K it's another record. At stock the P-Score is 200 points better than anything else we've seen. You can't argue with the facts.

This board really looks promising. Question: What material is the integrated water block made of? Some boards with water blocks built in use aluminum, which to me is just horrendous. Can we hope that if it's not copper or nickel that it's at least brass?

This board really looks promising. Question: What material is the integrated water block made of? Some boards with water blocks built in use aluminum, which to me is just horrendous. Can we hope that if it's not copper or nickel that it's at least brass?

It's aluminium. Asus claims the coating will pervent any corrosion but who knows.

I've been waiting to see a 'premium' board, with good PCI-E layout for SLI GPU's meaning : once PCI space to the CPU so large CPU air cooler and GPU dont almost touch, and then at least 3 units between first PCI-E slot to the next, so the a dual slot GPU can breathe, AND quality on-board sound.

I simply cannot believe how rare such a board is - nor how common it is for boards to try to accommodate 3 or 4 GPU although hardly any uses such a setup = waste.

It almost makes me sad, that I cannot justify a upgrade at this point as this would go VERY nicely with my Asus GTx780 OC DCUII, but my x58 board with a i7-950 @ 4.0 Ghz is actually still a very capable setup.

I would buy it but I would buy an after market NB water block. Call me a noob I honestly could not care less, when I am paying for something I want what I want, and since I work my arse off for my money, then yeah, I am going to GET what I want. Not aluminum with a "coating" and "faith" in ASUS...put too much "faith" in ASUS in the past, and it did sting.

May i suggest a topic/focus area in the reviews on something that just hit a mate of mine really hard:

He got this mobo, + 2 Asus gtx780 Posidon's AND a ASUS RAIDR "SSD" PCIe card. Now, I'd say he has done his homework, but it turned out he missed one critical detail:

When installing two Nvidia GPU's, the last PCIe slot becomes useless. There are no more PCI lanes, as the two previous slots are using 8 each, and there is only 16 to begin with. There is nothing left, for the bottom slot. This is where the RAIDR card, his boot / OS drive, was supposed to go!

Now, this may be apperent to some of you - but unless you really educate yourself in the deepests details of PCI lanes, I have to say it's VERY easy to get this wrong.

It's "ROG" mobo - with 3 PCIe slots. It's SLI certified. What, exactly, is it - that should alert you yo the fact, that the 3 slot cannot be used if you run SLI?

It's not mentioned ANYWHERE and I do not think it's fair to say that it should be obvious to anyone.

It's not like a PSU and QUAD SLI where you can run out of power. The watt needed are clearly mentioned on cards, and the PSU's output is usually printed in big fat numbers.

Now, PCI lane count is just as important as power or physical room inside your case - but nowhere do you seem to get warned or (clearly) informed about this. It is a 'hidden' detail and with no physical manifestations.

In the review here, yes, it does get said that you will get x8, x4, x4 if using all slots. However, it does NOT say (in any clear way) that it means your 3rd physical PCIe slot is now useless if you use SLI.

With (hopefully) more SSD's taking the form of a PCIe card (and thus doing away with the stupidity of using a controller though out for mechanical/rotating discs to access NAND/flash based storage) information on this subject could be useful for many.

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